I guess I never felt like Ueshiba thought aikido was a shortcut, only one of many ways to a goal which many people (the majority of whom are not aikidoists) share. Maybe I am bringing my own bias to my reading of Ueshiba.

In any case, whatever "oneness with God" is, I think one would be hard pressed to show that an aikidoist is more likely to achieve it than anyone else.

I'm not necessarily advocating "oneness with God" - or advocating against it, for that matter. All I'm saying is that it is virtually impossible to say the Morihei Ueshiba didn't consider that to be part of the definition of his Aikido.